With a 17-0 run, St. John’s wins rematch at RU

St. John’s avenged its home loss to Rutgers two weeks ago, using a 17-0 run to pull away for a 72-60 victory before a crowd of just 4,742 at the RAC. Rutgers is now 12-6 overall and 3-4 in the Big East and the Johnnies (12-7, 4-3) move into a tie for fourth place in the league. Check out Keith Sargeant’s outstanding video montage of the game and Mike Rice’s postgame presser. Now to the thoughts and quotes:

1. First, a tip of the cap to St. John’s. As we’ve said before, this team is loaded with talent. It came together for wins against Cincinnati and Notre Dame and coalesced for an eight-minute, 17-0 run that decided the outcome Wednesday night. JaKarr Sampson (21 points) made some max-difficulty shots, and SirDominic Pointer (13 points, 9 boards, 7 assists, 6 steals) was everywhere. The Red Storm “were definitely hungry for redemption,” as Rutgers center Austin Johnson put it, and they got it. Don’t be surprised if they make a serious run at the Big Dance.

2. That said, Rutgers’ turnovers opened the door for St. John’s. The casual attitude toward possessions handed a scoring-challenged team 20 points. Recipe for a loss right there. The easy buckets gave the Red Storm confidence, which resulted in a scorching 59 percent FG percentage in the second half. Most of those shots were contested.

3. Perhaps Mike Rice’s biggest challenge right now is getting through to Eli Carter (1-for-14, 5 turnovers). Carter seems uncomfortable playing against D’Angelo Harrison, shooting just 4-for-28 with 10 turnovers in his two matchups this season (he shot 4-for-12 in last year’s meeting). Benching him for the final 4:30 was a good start.

4. This was a missed opportunity, not a season-wrecking loss. Rutgers’ main goal of making the NIT is still well within reach. A win at UConn or Cincinnati in the coming week would put this in the rear view mirror. Won’t be easy, but in this crazy Big East season, how can you rule anything out?

5. Attendance: 4,742. Big disappointment for a game between two metropolitan-area teams sitting at 3-3 in the conference. We know the fan base has been repressed by years of losing. Nevertheless, this is a decent team and deserves better.

MIKE RICE

On Eli Carter: “We have to address some situations, but if you’re not scoring, there are other parts of the game that you can excel at to help your team, and that goes for a lot of our players. If it’s not dropping for one reason or another, pick up the challenge defensively, make some assists. Do something, make a play for your team, a winning play. Right now it’s affecting him. Putting the ball in the bucket is affecting him while he’s on the floor.”

When asked about the attendance: “I don’t have control over the crowd and who shows up. I have control of my team,” Rice said. “Very disappointed in our lack of compete tonight. That’s what I can control. Now we’ll have to go back and gauge the fight of the team.”

“Again, things will happen in the Big East. You look at Louisville losing two in a row. You’re going to lose some games. How you respond to that (will determine) what type of season you have.”

STEVE LAVIN

“We’ve been carrying around that salty taste in our mouth from having given that game away on our home court. That made this game paramount to get one back.”

WALLY JUDGE

“We let them get a lot of run-outs as far as turning the ball over. Then after a while their confidence built to where when we did challenge them, guys were making shots. That’s on us.”

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About Jerry Carino

Jerry Carino has covered sports for the Gannett New Jersey newspapers since 1996 and has been on the college basketball beat since 2003. A native of Old Bridge, he also teaches journalism at Kean University.

I counted at least 10 points the refs handed to SJU. Bozo Burr and crew gifted SJU 5 pts. the end of 1st half.: SJU guy travels but no problem, count the bucket and one. Miller had ALL ball on a shot block, but refs give SJU 2 FT’s anyway. You mentioned in your C-N write-up a non-call basket interference on a Carter shot. And finally, the disgraced clown prince of officiating Jimbo Burr himself sees a phantom hand from Wally Judge instead of an untouched bounce pass fired out-of-bounds by SJU. Of course SJU nails a 3-pt dagger off the next inbounds play.

Also, could you get the cable TV numbers for the last 2 RU home games? I know the fan base needs to shake-off the Fred Hill era and show-up at the RAC, however the USF game was a mid-week late start and last night we had single-digit wind chill temps.

Totally agree with RUready. The officiating did nto cost them the game but man those were some really bad calls. Also every article I read is how horrible the attendence was. Honestly it was single digits last night & I think many people just decided to watch at home. Curiuos to see what the crowd is for Louisville.

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Since its launch in 2006, Hoops Haven has become a staple of the New Jersey basketball community. This is the place to find breaking news, analysis and links about college and high school basketball in the Garden State.

About the Author

Jerry Carino has covered sports for the Gannett New Jersey newspapers since 1996 and has been on the college basketball beat since 2003. A native of Old Bridge, he also teaches journalism at Kean University.Email Jerry.